Thursday, 10 March 2005

Raising the Standard

Like other bloggers I welcome our recent victories over the MSM (Mainstream Media). I have to say though that I remain a fan of newspapers, and I mean the real, printed variety. When I lived in London I would regularly travel into the West End on Saturdays for the sole purpose of buying the Scotsman.

I am pleased therefore to welcome the arrival of the Scottish Standard into our newspaper marketplace. Although I am not convinced by the case for independence it did seem rather odd that none of the existing Scottish papers catered for the section of the political spectrum that provides the main opposition at Holyrood. Whether the Standard will succeed remains to be seen:

In a market where impact is all, the Scottish Standard, raised barely a ripple among the newspaper sellers. No advertising posters. No promotional displays.

I bought my copy on Wednesday evening and it was well displayed in my local RS McColl but I spotted a forlorn-looking pile of Standards in WH Smith on Thursday morning, neither with other newspapers nor alongside the weekly magazines.

This comment attracted my attention:

Commercially, it will stand or fall by advertising and that already looks very light. At a rough count, I made it just over eight pages of advertising - not good in 48 pages - and the fact that they have not managed to sell an advert on page one, invariably the most sought-after in a weekly, does not bode well.

Actually, I was rather surprised by just how many ads were in the paper but I know that some new publications offer cut-price deals to create the appearance of a commercial success.

On the actual content I have to say that my views echo those of George Kerevan:

Alex Salmond launched his election campaign on Tuesday with the only serious economic policy document I've seen from any of the parties.

Salmond's message:

To stoke up growth, attract inward investment and return exiled Scots talent, Alex has made the SNP the only party to advocate tax cuts. He proposes to drop corporation tax from its present 30 per cent to 20 per cent.

But I felt just like Mr Kerevan did as I read my copy of the Standard over a quiet pint:

However, I have a wee problem: I've been reading the Scottish Standard. It reminds me that the SNP is still politically schizophrenic.

Yes we had the SNP leader calling for a cut in corporation tax but the rest of the paper could have been written by an off-the-shelf, first-year-undergraduate, leftist cliche generator. If Scotland is to become independent the bills will be paid by the mass of middle class folk who work in the private sector. They're unlikely to be convinced by the first issue of this new paper.

1 comment:

That particular site is exactly what you describe it as: speculation. And speculation by people who are far from disinterested.

I am afraid that Andrew will come away from that site none the wiser than he entered it.

For far better predictions, see:

http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/

http://www.ukelect.co.uk/

These well-respected sites (which predicted the last election v well) forecast a UK Labour majority of 106-130 seats; and that the Scottish Tories will win one seat (narrowly): Dumfries & Galloway.

However, after Sunday's System 3 poll (Lab46% SNP23%, Con16%, LD13%) it is likely that those two prediction sites will adjust Dumfries & Galloway to a Labour win.

15 March 2005, 07:57:46 GMT– Like – Reply

David Farrer Andrew:

Have a look here for speculation on individual seats. We could see the Tories winning in a few places - Dumfries and Galloway (retention of the similar seat); Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale and Edinburgh South.

http://www.vote-2005.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=11

14 March 2005, 07:03:39 GMT– Like – Reply

Andrew Ian Dodge Well do the Tories stand any chance at all of winning anything in Scotland this round? The Tories seem to be in with a shot of taking a few seats in Wales from what I can tell.

13 March 2005, 22:59:46 GMT– Like – Reply

Stuart Dickson Neil,

Stuart will be pleased to see that I may well vote for them even tho' I don't believe in their prime policy.

I'm so touched I could cry. You will be getting full marks in your School Report this term.

11 March 2005, 22:00:42 GMT– Like – Reply

Stuart Dickson "the mass of middle class folk who work in the private sector. They're unlikely to be convinced by the first issue of this new paper"

True. But in fairness, I don't think that they are the primary target audience.

There is little doubt that the SNP have lots of work ahead of them to convince white-collar voters. According to the latest (Feb) YouGov results the SNP attracts 24% (2nd place) of the C2DE vote, but a miserable 14% (4th place) of the ABC1 vote. There was also that CA Magazine survey you posted on a recently. See my post:

Neil Craig I'd like to put in a strongly supportive word for Salmond's cutting corporation tax proposal. He is really putting it on the line for an innovative & libertarian position, certainly moreso than the Tories.

(The fact that it is similar to my proposal that the Lib Dems refused to debate may make me biased)

Stuart will be pleased to see that I may well vote for them even tho' I don't believe in their prime policy.

Now if only they could be converted to nuclear tho' this would leave the Standard short of a headline.